Man held over murder of triad enforcer in 'hit'

Police on the street outside the Top Karaoke Bar last July. Picture / Richard Robinson

A man has been charged with the murder of Tam Yam Ah, the triad gang enforcer who was assassinated outside his Auckland karaoke bar last year.

Wan Yee Chow, 53, unemployed, of Petone, appeared in the Lower Hutt District Court after being arrested yesterday.

The arrest came nearly seven months after 37-year-old Tam was shot dead while climbing out of his car in Symonds St.

Police are saying little about what led to the arrest, but the man was known to Tam.

He had also been interviewed earlier in the homicide investigation.

Detective Inspector Bernie Hollewand said Chow was one of three people police tried to interview yesterday morning.

The other two were now helping police with their inquiries. Police were not looking for any other "major players" in relation to the killing.

Detectives now had the weapon believed to have been used.

Tam came to New Zealand from China in the late 1980s and worked as a market gardener in Otaki.

He married in 1990 and was known to beat and rape his wife - who retaliated by drugging and attacking him with a meat cleaver.

Tam's head was split by 10 life-threatening blows and his wife was charged with attempted murder.

She was one of the first women in New Zealand courts to be acquitted through the defence of battered women's syndrome.

Tam, who was well known in the criminal underworld, went on to extort money from Asian people in protection rackets as part of a local offshoot of the Hong Kong triad 14K.

He served 2 years in jail from 1997 and three years from 2001 for a meat-cleaver incident at a karaoke bar where he worked as a bouncer.

Tam's life ended abruptly early last July 7.

He and a female friend pulled up in the carpark behind his karaoke bar.

As he was getting out of the car a masked man stepped from the shadows and shot him in the chest. He died within minutes.

Several months ago police revealed the murder appeared to be an organised hit, with the killer driving up from Wellington.

Mr Hollewand said yesterday that he could not comment further on the details of the killing as the case was before the court.

Police had a general idea of why Tam was killed but would still like to hear from anyone with information about the murder.

"There will be a number of people out there who know why this murder happened and who will know both the deceased and the man who has now been charged."